1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic apparatus that is provided with a unit such as a hard disc unit.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a data processing apparatus such as a notebook personal computer (hereafter referred to as “note PC”) has a built-in hard disc unit that houses a hard disc therein. As accessing the hard disc housed in a hard disc unit is accompanied by mechanical movement, a hard disc unit is vulnerable to a failure. Therefore, a typical note PC is configured such that an opening for housing a hard disc unit is formed in the bottom face thereof to allow detachable housing of the hard disk unit and a connector of the hard disc unit(hereafter referred to as “a unit side connector”) is connected with a connector of the note PC (hereafter referred to as “an apparatus side connector).
In order to obtain correct connection between the unit side connector and the apparatus side connector, a hard disc should be placed horizontally in the opening for the hard disc unit and then pushed to slide along the opening.
However, due to the demand for miniaturization of a note PC as a whole, an opening for loading a hard disk unit is also limited in space. Such a situation entails a problem that a disc unit is inserted obliquely to cause damage of the connector, or wrong connection of the connectors is unnoticed to cause malfunction of the note PC.
In order to deal with such a problem, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2002-93501 discloses that an opening for receiving connector pins of the hard disk unit is also formed in the top surface, in addition to the side surface, of the connector of the apparatus side, thereby reducing the size of the opening for loading the hard disc unit. Although this technique achieves the reduction in size of the opening for the hard disk unit, it does not eliminate the possibility of inserting the hard disc unit obliquely.
On the other hand, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2001-14839 discloses that a projection formed on the front end of the connector of the hard disk unit, abuts the connector of the apparatus when the hard disk unit is to be obliquely inserted, thereby preventing wrong connection between the connectors. This technique prevents wrong connection of the connectors when the hard disk unit is inserted obliquely, thereby preventing the damage of the connector. However, connector pins of the hard disk unit are usually aligned in two rows which are received by the corresponding insertion holes aligned in two rows. Accordingly, the technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2001-14839 does not prevent wrong connection of the connectors in a case where connector pins aligned in the lower row are inserted in the insertion holes in the upper row of the apparatus side-connector.
Additionally, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2002-297263 discloses space-saving structure in which a case housing multiple hard disc devices is adapted to be pulled, but does not relate to prevention of wrong connection of connectors.